The Reason in the Rhyme
by luvin-benadam
Summary: Temperance Brennan and Parker Booth have been kidnapped, and the closer Booth gets to finding them, the closer he gets to the trap set up for him. With the taunts of the kidnapper haunting him, Booth has 48 hours to save them.
1. Chapter 1

_D: Unfortunately they are not mine. If they were, Booth and Brennan would have been together a loooooong time ago._

Voices, like the quiet mumblings of some far away language, swam through the haze pressing in on her. A dull ache slowly made its way to the forefront of her head, throbbing with each pulse of her hammering heart. Movement; coming from her right or left she wasn't sure. Temperance Brennan was sure of nothing except pain. She squeezed her grey-blue eyes shut tight, forcing herself to concentrate, hard, on the voice that seemed so far away. It sounded scared. Scared? What was there to be scared of? Her surroundings were slowly starting to become more solid; the hard stone floor she was lying on unforgiving to her spine.

"Dr Bones? Please! Dr Bones?"

She knew that voice, knew it beyond a shadow of a doubt; a child's voice, scared and unsure, in need of comfort and reassurance. But the haze was so thick, so lulling, tempting her back into a sleepy unassuming oblivion. But the insisting voice needed her. She forced her eyes open and a dreamy vision swam before her. Floppy hair covered his teary eyes, his hands pressed needing against her shoulder, and his eyes showed remarkable relief upon her awakening.

"Dr Bones!"

"Parker?"

"Dr Bones I've been waiting for you to wake up for so long!" The terror in his voice was palpable.

Slowly she pushed herself into a sitting position, trying to minimize the amount of pain she showed on her face for Parker's sake. A small windowless room appeared slowly before her, hazy around the edges like a dream, not quite real, but all too real at the exact same time. "Parker what happened? Where are we?"

He wiped his running nose on the sleeve of his sweater. "I don't know. I woke up here. And he brought you in here later. Dr Bones where's my Daddy?" The longing in his voice made her want to cry.

She had no idea what to say to comfort the terrified child. Instead she adjusted her position, her broken ribs rubbing painfully against the tender flesh of her side. The cold grey walls led her to believe she was in some kind of warehouse, or a storage container of some sort. There were absolutely no defining characteristics to help her deduce their whereabouts.

"It's okay, Parker. I'm going to get us out of here."

Metal upon metal attracted their attention to the bolt sliding across the solid door in front of them, and Brennan instantly jumped painfully to her feet and shielded Parker with her body, his shaking hands wrapped tightly around her thigh, tear soaked face buried in the small of her back. She had one arm wrapped around his little body, holding him to her, protecting him from the eyes of the stranger at the door.

His face appeared, still a little hazy to her eyes, a sneer on his features like the ungrateful winner of some twisted game. He stood in the doorway, anxious hands never leaving the door in case his captives made a move, eyes trained against her shield of a body.

"Touching," he snarled, and his voice was like that of a demented angel, something that in any other situation would be beautiful. She was intrigued. "You protect him like he's your own."

"If you lay one hand on him..."

He laughed, a sinister, hollow laugh that echoed against the hard walls, and Brennan felt Parker recoil against her back. "Don't worry Dr Brennan. We're playing a game. And the only rules you have to follow are to stay here in this room until your partner falls into the trap of trying to save you. Your role in quite minimal. And if Agent Booth's son does exactly as he's told, I won't have a reason to hurt him. Are we understood?"

Quick thoughts hurried through her brain, an escape plan, some way to get Parker out safely. But it would require more time, more planning, and Parker's full cooperation. And at the moment, he was far too scared for any kind of escape. She would have to prepare him.

"Understood," she said, the glare of contempt in her eyes.

He leered again, satisfied this time, and slammed the door shut, the lock clicking resolutely after.

_**Eight Hours Earlier**_

She turned the torn paper over and over in her hands, each side marred with words she had written, each in the farthest context from the other. Soft fingers traced the familiar sentences, one side printed in mass, her book, the other scrawled in familiar longhand, the words rushed and smudged from the tears that had fallen as she wrote it. The note she had written as a failsafe in the buried car was screaming memories at her; memories that she wished she could forget, but instead dreamt about almost nightly. She didn't need to reread the words she had written so long ago. Temperance Brennan figured that those words would never leave her, forever they had left their mark upon her soul. Heather Taffet had taken something from her that day, changed her. Though for the better or worse she could not figure out.

Forcing her glance away from the note, sad eyes found the Christmas tree perched in the corner of the quiet apartment, but for some reason it held no comfort, no warmth, as it had in previous years, surrounded by the cheerful voices of those she loved. This year, she was alone. No one had called to invite her to dinner, to drinks, to share gifts and memories with. They had their own lives, their own families, and it seemed that she didn't quite fit into those lives as she had before. Booth was with Hannah in Vermont, a tag-along vacation with a reluctant Rebecca and Drew, so Booth could spend Christmas with his son. Brennan and Booth had barely spoken in weeks, ever since she had more or less confessed her feelings for him when her world had turned upside down. Truth be told she didn't blame him. She knew that he felt awkward, guilty, for the way she was feeling. But she missed his company, his nagging, his constant insistence for her to eat and sleep and stop working. Over the past couple weeks he had become no more than a stranger to her.

A soft ringing sounded from her phone, buried somewhere beneath the sheaths of blankets wrapped over her body. The raised surface of the buttons found her fingers and she wrapped her hand around it, unearthing it from the depths and bringing it to her ear.

"Brennan."

The familiar voice answering back was an instant comfort. "Hi, Sweetie!"

"Hi, Ange."

"Honey, why don't you come over? Hodgins and I are just finishing getting dinner ready. We would love if you could join us."

Brennan smiled. "I don't want to impose, Angela."

"Sweetie you are not imposing!" she insisted. "We want you to come spend Christmas with us; with your family. We didn't invite you sooner because we still thought you were going to Guatemala."

It was irrational, she knew. Angela and Hodgins were not family. Strictly speaking they were simply coworkers, and Angela was her best friend. But the feisty brunettes' choice of words had the desired effects nonetheless. Brennan considered them family whether it fit into rationality or not.

"Sure, Ange, I'd love to."

Angela didn't say anything, but Brennan knew she was smiling. "Fantastic. So I'll see you in half an hour?"

"Sure. I'll be there."

"Okay. Bye, Sweetie."

Brennan hung up the phone and rested her head against the back of the couch. She had thought she would always be able to count on Booth, but he had disappointed her. At least she had Angela. Extracting the blankets from around her body, she left the couch and walked down the hall to her bedroom. Something stopped her; a feeling, irrational as it was, that someone who shouldn't be there was. Turning on her heel, she spun back towards the way she came and was instantly faced with a man. Reactions kicked in and she swung, aiming wildly for whatever she could reach, but he was faster, stronger, and instantly had her spun with her back pressed against his front. She attempted to wiggle out of his strong grasp, but a soft cloth found its way over her mouth, and try as she might to hold her breath, the noxious scent filled her lungs and into a sleepy oblivion she fell.

Seeley Booth sighed. It had been a long and tiring day. He loved his son more than words could ever describe, but boy did that kid have a ton of energy. He collapsed onto the soft cotton sheets of the hotel bed and closed his eyes. The weight on the mattress shifted as a body sat down next to him. Eyes closed but lips turned up into a smile, a stranger hand creeped over the taught muscles of his abdomen, fingers playing with the ridges and dips of his abs.

"That tickles," he mumbled playfully. His eyes flipped open and he rolled quickly over, latching onto the body of the slim blonde on the bed and dragging her on top of him. Smiling eyes stared back at him. Her wet hair dangled down into his face, and he used one hand to play with a loose strand. "How was your shower?"

A coy smile fell upon her features. "I could think of things I rather would have been doing."

He raised his face up to kiss her, softly at first, then more rushed, passionate, needing with every touch of their lips. She responded with her hands, gently tugging at the hem of his wife-beater, tucked into the top of his jeans. He leaned slightly up, making it easier for her to slide the thin fabric off his toned body. His hands slipped up her shirt, caressing the soft skin beneath the wire of her bra. She moaned in pleasure and he smiled, his lips still on hers, and continued the venture of his fingers.

A shrill ring interrupted them and they both groaned in disappointment. "Don't answer that," Hannah mumbled, her lips finding the hollow of his neck and kissing it. His hands groped for the phone anyways. The caller ID read 'Bones'.

His heart jumped, and he guiltily knew that it had nothing to do with the beautiful woman whose lips were slowly making their way down his bare chest. "If it's important, she can leave a message." Booth placed the phone back on the nightstand and devoted his full attention back to Hannah.

Her warm body was pressed up against his side and he rested his head sleepily against the top of her now dry hair.

"You should probably check your voicemail. The light's been going off this whole time," Hannah muttered, exhausted.

Booth reached back up to the nightstand and pulled the phone to his ear. He typed in the password and listened intently. The distorted voice gave him the strangest sense of déjà vu and made his blood run cold. "I have taken Dr Temperance Brennan. You have forty-eight hours to figure out her whereabouts, or this place becomes her grave. Good luck Agent Booth, and check on your son."


	2. Chapter 2

Yellow teeth of fear bit through fleshy skin like the daggers of war and stared him in the face. Blood coursed through his veins, loud and obtrusive in his ears, fingers throbbing with pain. This couldn't be happening. It just couldn't. He was on his feet before he had consciously made the decision to do so, running faster than he ever had in his life, to the room where his son was. Booth's fingers flew to his phone as he hit his speed dial. A dazed Hannah was hot on his heels.

"Camille Saroyan," the voice on the other end answered.

"It's Booth." He was panting as he ran through the halls. "Someone's got Bones. And I think they have Parker. Cam I need the whole cavalry on this one. Get them to check on her. Now!"

She hesitated. It was too much information to process in the short amount of time he had shouted it at her. "Booth, slow down. What's going on?"

Seeley took a deep breath, attempting to calm his nerves and be rational enough that he could explain to Cam what was going on. "I got a call from Bones' cell phone. It was a message saying that he had her. And I don't know who he is. He said I had forty-eight hours to save her, and then he told me to check on my son. Camille I need someone to go check and make sure this isn't a hoax. I'm checking on Parker right now." He rounded the corner into the lengthy hall that Rebecca and Drew's room was down.

"I'll send someone over there right now," Cam said. "I'll call you back in five minutes."

He hung up without saying goodbye. Angry fists found the door he was looking for and he began to pound relentlessly.

"Seeley?" A dreary-eyed Rebecca opened the door. "Seeley what's going on?"

"Where's Parker?" The fear in his voice was enough to alert her that something was wrong.

"He ... he's sleeping in the adjoining room. Why? What's going on?"

Booth pushed past her, his eyes finding a bare-chested Drew sitting up in bed, a confused expression on his face. The door to the adjoining bedroom, which had its own hall access, was tightly shut. He twisted the knob and pushed it open into the darkness. Wasting no time, Booth flicked on the light in the small room and walked to the bed, sheets rumpled up into a small heap. He ripped them from the bed. It was empty.

Defeat crushed in on his chest like the weight of a thousand pounds. He sunk onto the bed and cradled his head in his hands.

"Where is he?" Rebecca's terrified voice asked. "Seeley! Where is our son?"

She dropped to her knees before him, hands grasping at the hem of his pants.

"I just got a phone call saying Dr Brennan had been kidnapped. The kidnapper told me to check on my son. Rebecca when was the last time you checked on him?"

Silent tears were rolling hot trails down her pale cheeks. "Just before Drew and I went to bed; Eleven something?"

Booth pushed himself off the bed with every last ounce of energy he had and raised his ringing phone to his ear. "Cam." It was a statement, not a question.

"Angela and Hodgins just got to Dr Brennan's apartment. Apparently she was on her way over to dinner at their house. They said they figured she was just running a little late. Seeley ... the door was kicked in. And there was blood."

Booth sighed. No form of denial could eject him from this resolute reality. "Parker's gone too. I'm going to get the local police on this, and then I'm coming back there. Please Cam, get all the squints on this. We need to find them."

_****_

__Soft sighs of sleep escaped his rosy lips, head curled up in her lap as her fingers twisted around his curls. She had no idea how long they had been there, at least eight hours from what she could remember, and Parker had only just now fallen asleep. Brennan hoped he was dreaming of nice things back home, escaping his current reality and not being trapped inside it in his mind as well. Her fingers traced circles into the soft cotton of his shirt as she tried to come up with a plan, any kind of plan that would ensure Parker's safety. But with Parker in the equation, Brennan had to think twice as hard, because she would be damned if she didn't get Booth's son out of this alive.

The grinding of metal forced Parker's eyes back open and his glance instantly met hers. She shifted her position so his body was hiding behind hers. His smart face appeared again at the mouth of the door, analyzing the scene before him; the beautiful woman protecting the son of her partner.

"You," he spat, a long finger pointing at Brennan. "Up. You're coming with me. Now."

She was unsure whether or not to comply. On the one hand, if she was with their captor, then Parker wouldn't be. But the thought of leaving the small, helpless boy on his own was heart wrenching. She turned her body to face him, a hand on either of his shoulders, and put her face inches from his, whispering so the man wouldn't hear.

"I'm going to be right back, okay buddy? I need you to trust me, and to be a good boy and sit here quietly while I'm gone."

"No Dr Bones," Parker wailed. "Please don't leave me here by myself!"

"It's okay," she cooed, wrapping his small body into a tight hug. His arms snaked around her back and grasped on for dear life. "I'm going to get us out of here, but I need to go with this man so I can find a way, okay? I promise you Parker, I'm going to get you home to your Mom and Dad very, very soon."

His clammy face nodded, scared but understanding. She kissed the top of his head and braced herself for the pain of standing. The man was still waiting at the door, a rope in his hands. "Turn around, hands behind your back." She did as she was told. Brennan was too unprepared to get both herself and Parker out alive when she had so little information about their situation. She felt the rough fibres tighten painfully against the tender flesh of her wrists, yanking her shoulders unnaturally backwards. She maintained a placid face for Parker's sake.

"I'll be right back," she promised as the man yanked her by the rope out the door and slammed it shut behind them.

"And why would you think that Dr Brennan? You have no idea what's going to happen next. Why promise that little boy something you don't know if you can keep or not?" The satisfaction in his sentence was sickening. Brennan opted to stay silent. "Fine," he spat. "You'll be talking soon enough."

Roughly he dragged her down a long, narrow corridor, the same type of walls as the room she had just left Parker in. There were no windows, nothing at all, that she thought she could use to aid in some form of escape. Hopelessness seeped into her like a disease but she fought it off. Brennan needed to stay strong, for Parker's sake if not her own. The hallway seemed to go on for what felt like forever until at last they came to a split, one hall to the left, the other to the right.

He pulled her down the hall to the right and she kept her eyes trained on the end, looking for where it stopped and something else started. A faint glimmer of natural light reflected off something close to the end of the hall; a window. However before she could reach it she was yanked through a door on the right and thrown without distain into a plastic chair. It was facing a camera. The man walked behind her and secured another rope around her feet, tying her to the chair, and another rope around her already bound wrists to the back of the chair. With a smile, he walked towards the camera and took his position behind it.

"Well Dr Brennan, it's time to send a little message to Agent Booth."

Seeley Booth had just pulled up to the Jeffersonian. He had painstakingly scoured the hotel's security footage, but most of the cameras had inexplicably been turned off at the time of Parkers disappearance. Having nothing more to do in Vermont, he had come back to D.C., knowing that he was of more use there with the team than with a hysterical Rebecca. Booth rushed up to the platform, his face scared, his eyes hurried, and slammed his fists down on the examination table.

"Please," he asked, his voice bordering on begging. "Please tell me you have something."

The squints all shared a look that infuriated him. He slammed his fists down again. "Please!"

Cam spoke first. "This was just sent to me through email." She turned to the monitor behind them and clicked a video into life.

Onto the screen popped a masked man, only his eyes and mouth visible. "Hello Agent Booth." It sounded conversational, like an old friend, and Booth was chilled to the bone. "I believe you know my good friend Temperance Brennan?" The man moved to the side and the team got a view of Brennan, gagged and bound to a chair. Booth's heart sunk. "I believe she has some final things to tell you."

He moved to the side of the cameras view and yanked the cloth out of Temperance's mouth. Silent tears rolled down her pale cheeks. "Booth," she simpered, and his heart broke at the sound of his name on her lips, her desperate cry for him to find her and save her. "Booth I promise I'm going to get Parker back to you."

A heavy fist slammed into the side of her face and she cried out in pain. The man's face appeared up close on the screen. He smiled. "No she won't." And the screen went blank.


	3. Chapter 3

_Sorry about the delay guys. My grandfather just passed away, so I haven't really been in the right frame of mind to keep writing. Nonetheless, I'm hoping this will make me feel a little better. Hope you enjoy!_

His legs quavered under him and Booth didn't trust them to hold him up. His body fell heavily down into the chair behind him. He could feel the blood coursing with adrenaline through the veins of his body; it was the only thing keeping him going. Trembling hands cupped his head in his lap.

"We've tried tracing the feed from the video," a cautious voice prompted. "But it's been rerouted through too many servers to find out where the signal is coming from," Angela said. "Booth." She fell to her knees before him, talented hands squeezing his knees, "We're going to find them. You just have to have a little faith." His dejected face stared back at her, eyes pleading for answers she didn't have.

"I've got something," Hodgins demanded as he swiped his card and ran up to the platform. "I collected a soil sample from Dr B's carpet when Ange and I went to her apartment. It came back with traces of cadmium and crude oil." He looked around the platform expectantly as if someone should know what he was talking about. When no one responded, he continued. "In the eighties there were a bunch of cadmium plants along the coast that were owned by a company called BioTerring, who were using cadmium as an experimental agent. In the early nineties the company went bankrupt and sold back all their warehouses to pay off their debts. There are about twelve of BioTerring's old warehouses left still standing, all along the coast, which is where the crude oil came from. But I can't seem to narrow it down any further."

Relief seemed to pass through the group.

"Well then let's get people out to all the warehouses!" Angela said. "They need to start searching."

"It's not quite that simple. The BioTerring warehouses were designed as labyrinths. They were doing highly controversial studies and had hidden away the most debatable ones in the depths of these buildings. To thoroughly search just one building would take way more than a day. There are twelve buildings. We need something else, something to narrow it down further."

And as fast as the hope had come, it had left.

"We have to be missing something," Booth whispered, more to himself than the others. "There has to be something we haven't found yet." He looked around the group as if expecting an answer. The daunting faces before him sucked every last breath of hope from his body.

BrennanBooth

She awoke sometime later, cold, shivering, body pressed heavily against the stone floor. A strange warmth was pressed against the front of her body, but the effort of opening her eyes seemed too labouring. Her face was taught and ached and Brennan could feel the dried blood that had pulled the skin tight across her forehead and cheek. Sniffling from the warmth in front of her brought her mind a little more to the present and with a great deal of energy, she flicked her eyes open. A curly mop of hair was tucked under her chin, little body curled up into hers, his face nuzzled against the soft skin of her chest. She moved her hand and placed it on his shoulder, gently rubbing a soft circle into the cotton of his shirt.

He stirred from below her and raised his eyes to meet her. His eyes were scared. "Dr Bones are you okay?" The concern in his voice made her heart melt.

"I'm fine, Parker. Don't worry about me." Brennan wondered if her words were empty to the little boy. She had no idea how bad her face looked; probably just as bad as it felt. "Are you okay Sweetie? He didn't hurt you, did he?"

Parker shook his head in an adamant no. "He just threw you back in here and left again." His stomach growled loudly at the end of his sentence.

"You haven't eaten since we got here, have you?" It was more of a statement than a question.

Parker shook his head again. Brennan knew she had some quick thinking to do. Their captor hadn't seemed all that intelligent, and Temperance thought that if she could use what little psychology she knew (and resented) that she may be able to manipulate the man into releasing Parker.

"I'm going to get you out of here Parker, okay? I'm going to get you back to your Mommy and Daddy." Gingerly, she pushed herself into a sitting position and stood, every bone aching painfully from the slightest movement. She turned back to Parker. "I've got to get the man to come here for a minute. I want you to just sit there quietly and not say anything. Can you do that for me?"

He nodded his head yes. He gave him what she hoped was an encouraging smile and proceeded to the door. Her fist raised to the heavy metal and banged loudly and repeatedly. It took a few minutes, but his angered face finally appeared and snarled at her.

"What do you want?"

"Can I talk to you for a minute please? Alone?"

His eyes found Parker in the middle of the room, arms wrapped around his knees, and he smiled. "Anything for a pretty lady." A strong hand wrapped around her arm and dragged her from the room. "What the hell do you want?"

A deep breath attempted to calm her nerves. "I want to make a deal."

The smug smile on his face was sickening. "And what is it that you think you have to offer that will be tempting for me in exchange for whatever it is you what?"

"I want you to release Parker."

He laughed, a cold, merciless laugh that echoed off the walls.

"Just hear me out," she prompted before he would stop listening and throw her back into the room. "You said you were setting up a trap for Booth. You don't need both me and Parker for that. You seem like an intelligent man," she lied to feed his ego. "I don't think my team is going to figure out where it is that you've brought us."

His face betrayed his poker mask and a flicker of concern found his face.

"If they were going to find the clues to our whereabouts, they would have found us already. This amount of time going by means that they've exhausted all their clues. They don't know where we are. Send Parker back. Give him some sort of clue that will renew the case. If you want Booth, you have to give him back Parker. It's not conceding defeat, you're not losing you're winning. If you send Parker back to Booth, you get Booth. Do you see the correlation?"

His face remained blank and then twitched into a smile. "Alright Dr Brennan, you've got yourself a deal."


	4. Chapter 4

_So I felt bad about how short the last chapter was, and after all your wonderful condolences, I've decided to update as quickly as I could. I hope you all enjoy!_

He stared at her as if expecting her to challenge him, question him, distrust him enough to put up some sort of fight. But she didn't. Temperance Brennan did not believe that you could read emotions through eyes, but she nonetheless tried as hard as she could to portray understanding into her gaze.

"I'm coming with you," she said. It was not a question, it was a statement. "I won't know that Parker gets back safely otherwise. I promise I won't try anything. I just need to know that you've kept up your end of the deal and returned Parker to Booth safe and sound."

His eyes stared her down, unseeing. "No."

She maintained her composure. "Listen, you can tie my hands, and I'll keep low in the car until Parker gets released. And if we do this right, Booth can see me too."

A flicker of curiosity flashed in his eyes. "What do you mean?"

"If we drop Parker off at the Jeffersonian, we can wait until Booth is outside before we let Parker out of the car. Then right as we're driving away, we let Booth get a quick glance at me. Trust me, I know Agent Booth. If he has some sort of proof for himself that I'm alive, more than just what Parker will tell him, it will renew his vigour. He'll be that much more determined."

The man smiled. "I like the way you think Dr. Let's do this now. The less time I have to look at that little brats face the better." He dragged her by the arm back to the door and threw her inside. Parkers face showed utter relief.

"Dr Bones! I didn't think you were gonna come back for me!"

She threw her arms open and he ran into her embrace. "Parker I'll always come back for you. Listen, I'm going to get you out of here, okay? But I need you to do exactly what I tell you to." She felt his head nod in understanding against her shoulder. "The man is going to bring you back to your Dad, but I'm going to have to stay with him a little longer."

"No!" The fear in his voice was palpable. "I want you to come too!"

"I can't Parker. Not yet. But I promised your Dad that I was going to get you safely back to him, and that's exactly what I'm going to do. We're going to get in a car and he's going to drop you off with your Dad. There's some things that I need you to tell him for me; things that are really, really important. Do you think you can remember them for me?"

His eyes widened, fearful. "Yes."

"I need you to tell them that the place where they've got us is a warehouse near the ocean, and that there's lots of molybdenum here. Can you say that for me? Molybdenum." She had discovered the molybdenum not too long ago when Parker had been asleep in her lap, there were traces of it all over his hair.

His dumbstruck face stared back at her. "Parker this is really important. I need you to say it for me; molybdenum."

"Molydum?" his mouth stuttered around the word.

"What if you remember it like 'molly bee denim' is that easier?"

"Molly bee denim." The words came out clearer than before and Brennan hoped that the team would be able to decipher what he was talking about. "Molly bee denim. I can remember that."

She gave him an encouraging smile. "There's one other thing I want you to tell your Dad for me, okay?" He nodded enthusiastically, the hope of a plan portrayed in his wide eyes. Knelt in front of him, she raised rosy lips to his waiting ears and whispered her message for Booth. "Can you remember that too? I know it's a lot to remember buddy, but I know you can do it."

"I'll remember."

The door lurched open and he stood at the mouth, one hand on the door, the other clutching brazen ropes. He threw one into the depths of the room. "Tie this around the kids' hands." Brennan raised herself to her feet and grabbed the tossed rope and gently wrapped it as loosely as she could around Parker's wrists without it falling off. "Now you come here." She did as she was told. She didn't dare jeopardize her plan now, not so close to having Parkers freedom secured. He yanked the rough fibres into the soft of her skin; her shoulders ached from the force. "Now come with me, and so help you God if you dare try anything."

Parker hesitantly walked towards them, his eyes never leaving Temperance who smiled to show him that it was all going to be okay. The man looped one of his arms around Brennan's and squeezed Parker's shoulder with the other, leading them down the hall he had led her down before, only this time they took a rickety staircase through a labyrinth of tunnels and passages, finally finding freedom at a door awhile away. A car was waiting, an old tan model of some late European decade, and he threw Brennan and Parker into the back.

"You'll be wearing this," his hand held up a black blindfold, "And this," his other held a gag. He secured them both, one over her eyes, the other over her mouth, and clamoured into the driver's seat. Brennan felt Parker nuzzle against her side. "Now here's the plan: I'm taking the two of you to the Jeffersonian where we'll park until we see Agent Booth outside. Only then will I remove your blindfold, Parker will get out of the car, and the second Agent Booth sees you Dr Brennan, we go back to where we came from." She couldn't see him, but she knew he was smiling.

BrennanBooth

He had never felt so hopeless and useless in his life. Agents had started searching all of BioTerring's buildings but as Hodgins had said, it would take them forever to fully search each and every one. Booth wanted to be out there with them, looking for his son and partner, feeling useful and like he was accomplishing something. Instead he was confined to her office, the room that screamed of her very being, and he longed for the days where they would sit in here for hours and talk and eat. Guilt coursed through his veins. It was his fault that she was gone; Parker too, but for an entirely different reason. Parker had been so close and Booth berated himself for letting someone get to his son while he was right there, so close to him. Bones was different. Things hadn't been the same between them since she had all but confessed her feelings for him, and Booth knew that he was subconsciously (or not so subconsciously) trying to avoid her; to avoid the feelings that she brought up in him when she was around.

There was no more going to eat at Wong Fu's, he avoided stopping by to make sure she wasn't working too late or eating regularly, he never ever dropped by her apartment in the middle of the night because he couldn't sleep. Booth stayed at home with Hannah, where he told himself he belonged. But there were the nights that followed the days he hadn't seen her at all where he'd dream of her; of the way her soft hair fell into her face when she was working, yet she was so concentrated that she wouldn't notice; the way he would absentmindedly place his hand on the small of her back as they walked; the way they just gravitated towards each other, so completely unintentional yet so unavoidable. He longed for her to be back in a way he couldn't describe.

Booth knew that the team was doing everything they could to find Parker and Brennan, but the resentment he felt was still palpable. They were brilliant, each and every one of them, so why was it taking them so long to find them? Hannah had sat with him for awhile, trying to comfort him, but his cold demeanour had driven her away to some other part of the lab where he wasn't; With Rebecca perhaps? He didn't really care. He wanted his son. He wanted Bones. He wanted things to be the way they used to be. But he knew there was no going back.

BrennanBooth

The car was thundering at a steady pace down a fairly straight road and Brennan assumed they were on the highway. They had been driving for close to twenty minutes and she could feel Parker shifting anxiously beside her. He knew better than to dare say a word. The pace of the car slowed into something more residential as they rounded out of a sharp corner and the car lurched to a stop periodically; stoplights. Heavy sounds of downtown traffic found her ears and she listened intently for something that sounded familiar. The car pulled to the right and found itself at a stop. Her heart was racing. She assumed this was it: the moment she had spent so long conceiving to make sure Parker got out of this alive. He was so close to freedom, so close to Booth, she could taste it.

"Parker take the blindfold off of her," the voice commanded from the front seat.

She felt the soft fabric fall from her face and rest at her neck and welcomed back her sight. They were parked across the street from the Jeffersonian, midday traffic heavy against the pavement. Hopelessness coursed through her. The locks on the both doors had been tampered with, rendering any form of escape impossible; the door would only open from the outside. Plus with her hands securely tied behind her back, there was a slim chance of making any form of getaway. From across the busy street, faint faces were discernable. She was so attuned to him that Brennan knew (however empirically impossible) that she would sense him before she saw him.

The man shifted suddenly from the front seat, sitting on the edge both literally and metaphorically. He had seen something. Brennan`s eyes hurriedly scanned the thin crowd and finally found his face; the face she had been seeing every time she had dared close her eyes. He was flanked on either side by Angela and Cam, both with dejected looks on their faces. The man jumped from the car and swung the back door of the car open.

"Out!"

Parker slid across the seat and stood, petrified, next to the car. The man's eyes scanned the heavy traffic waiting for an opportune moment for Parker to run across. "Now!"

Little feet pounded across the empty pavement as the man jumped back into the car and sat with the engine idling.

"Dad! Daddy!" Parker's voice cried out over the breathing of the city.

Booth stopped in his tracks. He had been hearing that voice for days, a phantom of the child he had lost. But this was different, more concrete, and more real. Eyes dashed across his surroundings, searching for something he didn't really believe was there. But there he was, his child, his son, screaming his name, running towards him, so impossible yet so absolute that there was no denying it.

"Parker!" He ran towards him and found himself on his knees, sobbing on the sidewalk into the shoulder of the impossible. He held him at arm's length, still believing he was having a hallucination of some sort. But he was real, more substantial than he ever believed a person could be, tears streaming down his dirt smudged cheeks, t-shirt soaked in blood, crying his name.

Booth wrapped Parker back into his arms, safe and vowing to never let the little boy out of his sight. "Parker, how did you get here? Where's Bones?"

Through the tears all he could manage was, "Car," and point in the direction he had just ran from. Booth stood, son still held tight in his arms, and searched. An old tan car was sitting directly across the street and he strained his eyes to see the face in the back seat.

It was her, unmistakably. She was covered in blood and her mouth was gagged, but her eyes, the eyes that had haunted him for so many years of his life, were staring straight back at him, begging for him to save her. He threw Parker into Cam's arms and started running through traffic to the car, to that face that so desperately needed him. But it was gone just as fast as it had came, and just like that, he had lost her again.


	5. Chapter 5

_**Wow, so I recently just rediscovered this story and I'm so ashamed to admit that I abandoned it when it had such a trail of loyal followers. I'm sad to say that it's been over a whole year since I last updated it, but when I reread it I realized that it definitely deserved an ending, for all of our sakes! So to those who read it before, I hope you still enjoy, and to those who are just discovering it now, hopefully you won't have to wait nearly as long as the last readers! Ps...wow how things have changed in the show since I last updated this! Ahaha. **_

_** Enjoy and review!**_

Whatever last, faint hope she had clung to was gone the second Booth's terrified face disappeared from the backseat window, eyes blazing. The irrational hope that her escape was tied in with Parker's was completely eradicated now with nothing but the destitute reality in front of her. She couldn't help the few tears that fought loose from her control and spilled over the edge of her eyes, warm and salty, cutting tracks through the dirt and blood on her face. She tried to tell herself that getting Parker back safe was all that mattered, but now that his safety was out of the question she couldn't help but wish she had tried a little more to secure her own safety as well.

"Get down," he barked.

She took one last desperate look out the passing window and lay dejectedly down across the back seat, the seat still warm from where Parker's body had been just moments ago.

"I've got to admit," the man sneered from the driver's seat. "I thought you'd try something there, something to escape."

She said nothing, partially because of the gag in her mouth, and partially because she didn't want to give him the satisfaction of knowing that she had lost all hope for herself.

"But I've got to admit that you were right," he continued. "Did you see that look on Agent Booth's face when he saw you?" He let out a long, low whistle. "Oh boy was that ever a look of determination!" He laughed, cold and mirthless, as if commenting on a causal exchange of flirting between two strangers. "I'm sure we'll be seeing him again soon enough!"

The tears were now threatening to choke her, her breathing seriously compromised by the gag binding her mouth, so she rolled onto her side and stared at the worn carpet of the floor, every last ounce of energy she had left concentrating on a way to get out alive.

BrennanBooth

At first he thought he had imagined her, hair knotted, face bloody, eyes daring, but the look of pure and utter terror etched into every line of her face was the resolute reality that he could never create an illusion, broken and bruised and bleeding as she was, that was that close to perfection. His heart was in his throat, his ears, the painful throbbing of his fingers, everywhere but the place it should be, as he chased the car through the busy rush-hour traffic. It was only when he had lost sight of it four blocks ahead that Booth finally admitted defeat and, crushed, ran back into the arms of his waiting son.

"Daddy!" Parker cried as Booth picked him back into his embrace.

"Are you okay?" He felt his son nod his head against his chest. "Let's get you back inside."

Booth followed a stunned Angela and Cam back into the Jeffersonian and into Bones' office, setting Parked down on the couch and kneeling in front of the impossibility before him. In all his years as an agent of the FBI, never had he experienced a kidnap victim being returned to where they belonged for no feasible reason.

"Can someone go find Rebecca please?" Booth asked to the room and Angela immediately left.

Booth took in his son. He looked no worse for the wear except for the fact that he was a little dirty and terror stricken. "Parker I need you to tell me everything that happened okay? Why didn't Bones come back with you?"

Parker's lower lip jutted out into a frown. "The bad man said she had to stay."

"Why?" Booth pressed.

"I don't know," he insisted. "I asked her to come with me but she said it was important that I came back to you." His face knotted into an expression of confusion as if he didn't quite understand the implications of the words he was parroting.

Booth took a gulp of air, hoping it would steady his shaking hands, but finding no comfort in the motion.

"She told me to tell you something!" Parker said as the realization hit him.

A flicker of elation coursed through Booth's veins alongside his adrenaline. "What did she want you to tell me?"

Parker's head tilted to the side and his eyes looked up to the ceiling as he strained to remember what she had asked of him. "She wanted me to say sorry that she let you walk away. And she says love you."

The pain that coursed through his heart made him close his eyes and hold his breath. If that had actually been what Bones had asked his son to deliver to him as a message, it was a goodbye. It was as if she had no intention of actually returning to him.

"Oh and Molly Bee Demin." He had almost got it right.

The sudden absurd phrase from his son's mouth flipped his eyes back open. "What?" He asked.

"Dr Bones asked me to remember it, too."

"Molly Bee Demin?" Booth turned the phrase over in his mouth, trying to make sense out of three seemingly unrelated items.

He was spared questioning Parker further when Rebecca, Drew and Hannah all burst back into the room, Rebecca launching herself at her son, Drew wrapping his arms around them both, and Hannah standing awkwardly next to the couch. Booth stood up and walked over to where Cam and a returned Angela and Hodgins looked both relieved and increasingly worried.

"Molly Bee Demin," Booth muttered under his breath again, running his hands through his hair in a motion of anxiety. "Molly bee demin."

"Wait, what are you muttering?" Hodgins asked.

"Molly bee demin," Booth repeated. "It's something Bones asked Parker to remember to tell us."

"Could he mean molybdenum? I think one of BioTerring's warehouses used to specialize in it. They used it as an alloy in stainless steel."

The thrumming of Booth's heart had increased again. Had this been the message Bones was trying to send him? That this man, whoever he was, was keeping her in a place with molybdenum?

"Parker, was it molybdenum? Is that what Bones asked you to remember?" Booth called out to his son across the room.

Parker's face lit up. "Yeah!" He cried. "That's it!"

Booth's turned to face Hodgins but he was already running from the room. They tore after him, ignoring the alarms as they sounded as they stormed the platform without the proper identification swipe.

"Please tell me you have an address for that warehouse." Booth tried to keep his voice from sounding desperate but the attempt was futile.

"There was only one warehouse that BioTerring used molybdenum in," Hodgins said. He finally found the paper he was looking for amongst the many scattered across the exam table and thrust it into Booth's hands. "And here's its address."


	6. Chapter 6

From somewhere above her a faint breeze of strangely warm air collided with her skin, tickling the small hairs across her forearm and stirring her from the slumber that had taken her. It was like a soft kiss, gentle, delicate, a faint sliver of optimism in a room that otherwise only held despair and horror. Gently she rolled onto her side, sore shoulder colliding painfully with the concrete beneath it, and kept her eyes closed. For a moment, and just a moment, she would continue to pretend to be somewhere out of harm's way, where the sun was kissing her skin and the cool wind raked its fingers through her hair. But the denial could only last so long and, begrudgingly, Temperance Brennan opened her eyes back into the reality before her.

It was the same room as before, stark grey walls with only one door. But with one new added detail that she had failed to notice before: an air vent on the ceiling directly above her, slowly blowing a steady stream of balmy air onto her body. She rolled over back onto her back and stared fixedly at the vent, willing it somehow to provide an escape. But the ceiling was at least eight feet and with nothing to clamor onto she wouldn't be able to reach it. Her eyes searched the farthest corners of the small room, desperately searching for something, anything, that she could use as a step to heighten her. But the only thing in the room was her.

Painfully she pushed herself into a sitting position. Instantly her head felt heavy and leaden and the small room spun nauseously around and around. She pinched her eyes shut and tucked her head between her knees, willing the sensation to stop so she could think clearly. When the floor beneath her stopped launching, Brennan came to a realization: If she couldn't escape secretly through the room, she'd have to escape through the only door; which meant that the next time the man came to see her, she would have to be prepared to fight him with whatever remaining strength she possessed.

The thought was frightening, taking on her captor with no weapon and serious injuries, but the thought of laying down and dying in this room without even trying to free herself was even more frightening. No, she would fight, it's what she did. As carefully as she could Brennan pushed herself into a standing position, her bones and joints protesting at every motion, and walked the few feet from the center of the room until she was standing in the small hollow set slightly back from the door. She eyed her position. From this vantage point she would have the upper hand but only for a moment. When the door was opened light would flood the shadowy room and the moments it took him to search for her among the shadows against the back wall would be the moments she would have to seize in order to secure her freedom.

Time slowly ticked by and for Brennan it felt as if she had been trapped in this room for days. Her lips were cracked and dry with dehydration and her stomach felt rigid and empty with hunger. However long she had actually been here, she wouldn't survive much longer without food or water. She wished he would hurry up and check on her already; her feet were aching with the effort of standing for hours and her body would dangerously sway every time she started nodding off to sleep. When considering going and lying down for a few moments crossed her mind, there was the distinct sound of footsteps echoing off the other side of the metal walls.

Instincts were instantly heightened and Brennan knew that this was the only chance of escape she was going to get. She poised herself at the edge of the door, feet ready to spring, hands clenched into fists, waiting for the perfect moment. Jingling keys fussed with the lock they belonged to and his voice rang out from behind the thin walls as he clearly struggled to find the right key.

"Now Doctor, I told Booth he had 48 hours to find and 'save' you. It's been nearly 38 hours and he's still not here!" The man said as he at finally inserted the right key and pulled hard on the door. "Now that's cutting it a litt-" He stopped mid sentence as his eyes cast around the floor for a body that was hiding in the depths of the shadows.

In that brief moment of confusion she seized her opportunity. She darted out from the small hollow and launched herself at the man. Their bodies collided as she slammed her fists into every inch of him she could reach, pounding relentlessly into his head, arms, torso. A swift kick to his groin rendered him momentarily incapacitated as he doubled over in pain and without hesitation she ran from the room. Tracing the path she had taken when they released Parker, her feet pounded the unforgiving floor, breath hitching, desperately searching for a shiver of light that would tell her she was heading in the right direction.

But each corner she turned looked exactly like the last one and terror seized her. Brennan could hear him stumbling painfully along behind her, staggering as his body collided with one or two of the walls, his curses echoing and reaching her ears. He was only twenty feet away from her now. She pulled open the door closest to her and threw herself into whatever lay beyond and stumbled as her heels clipped something that caused her to fall backward. The juts painfully stabbed into her back and when she turned around she was elated to see that they were stairs.

She pulled herself back to her feet and half-crawled, half-walked her way up the winding staircase into what she hoped was escape. As she rounded the last steps a single door came into view and she threw it open. What was waiting was the last thing she had expected.

The man stood there, fury radiating off every inch of him, and before she could even react his fist was colliding with her face, sending her into a tumble at his feet.

"You bitch," he snarled. "I told you that if you played by my rules that there was no need for you to get hurt." He kicked her forcefully in the ribs to make his point and she rolled onto her stomach to protect her abdomen. He yanked her hands away from her head and behind her back. With a loud pop her shoulder pulled from its socket and a cry of pain escaped her lips.

"Shut up," he spat. "Now get up. We're going to phone Agent Booth and tell him just what a bad girl you've been."

He pulled her to her feet and the pain of it threatened to make her unconscious. But she fought it off when instead of taking her back down the stairs that had been her only hope of salvation he continued to lead her down the hall of the upper floor and into a room smaller than the one she had been kept in before. It looked much like the room they had filmed the video in with the lone chair in the middle, minus the tri-pod. He threw her back into the chair and tied the ropes around her ankles; the wet feeling on her skin was clear indication that the ropes were pulled so tight they drew blood.

The stranger was visibly shaking with anger as he pulled out what Brennan recognized as her own cell phone and hit buttons until he found what he was looking for. With a smirk of satisfaction he raised the glowing phone and hit the speakerphone button so the shrill ringing sounded painfully off the walls.

It didn't ring long before the agonized voice called out her name against the empty room. "Bones! Bones, is that you?"

She had to stifle the sob that settled into her throat at his voice. "Booth!" She cried out and the man smiled further.

Booth's heart stopped at his name on her lips. She was alive. "Bones I'm coming for you!"

"Oh no no," the man interrupted. "Not if you want to see her alive you're not. You better listen closely to what I have to say."

Silence greeted their ears as Booth contemplated the proposition. "If you hurt one hair on he-"

But the man's laugh silenced Booth threat. "You're in no position to be threatening me, Agent. I hold all the power. And if you want to see Dr Brennan alive again, I'll tell you where she is on the condition that you come alone. And don't think I won't be able to tell. I've got cameras everywhere around here. I see one other person with you and she's dead before you get here. Do I make myself clear?"

Brennan could practically hear the gears in Booth's head working over the man's proposition before that one clear word left his mouth: "Yes."

The man laughed again. "Good. Now this is where you'll find her."


End file.
